Announcing the launch of three contests: The mascot 2009 contest, the program book cover 2008 contest, and the pocket programming book cover 2008 contest!

Artists, here's your chance to make your work a part of Kumoricon. The winner of the mascot contest will receive a free Artist Alley booth at Kumoricon 2009!

The mascot will be prominently used in Kumoricon art and publicity material for the 2009 convention year, including but not limited to the web site, promotional flyers and posters, advertisements, merchandise, and badges/membership cards. It should be an immediately attractive, original, anime-style character or characters reflecting the "cloudy" theme of Kumoricon, typically with an umbrella. We need two versions: one adult or teen, and one chibi.

The cover of the 2008 convention program book introduces attendees to the convention upon arrival; every attendee receives one. It is full color and letter size. Fully detailed, colorful backgrounds and foregrounds work best.

The cover of the 2008 pocket programming guide is a smaller, simpler design, in grayscale. Lightly detailed and shaded or all-white backgrounds, with strong, contrasting shades, lines, and geometric patterns work best.

All contests:

Entries must be received by Sunday, July 6, 2008, 11:59:59 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

Entries must be emailed to publicity@kumoricon.org, with the files included as attachments. If the files are too big to attach, you can use YouSendIt or a similar service (please one that does not require registration for the recipient), or ask at publicity@kumoricon.org to arrange alternate delivery.

Entries must be accompanied by

1. The full name of the entrant or entrants.2. The name or nickname, if different, to display as the credit for the entry in the gallery, once voting is closed.3. Entries must be sent from a working email address at which we can contact you.

Entries should in some way represent themes of Kumoricon, such as the "cloudy" theme, ("kumori" means "cloudy"), the location, color schemes (blue is a prominent Kumoricon color), or other unique aspects of Kumoricon. Umbrellas are a tradition in the Kumoricon mascot and art.

Winning entries become the property of Kumoricon. Therefore, by entering the contest, entrants commit to the possibility of their entries becoming the property of Kumoricon. If, after winning, the entrant is requested to or makes alternate or modified versions, or Kumoricon or its staff or volunteers create alternate versions on behalf of Kumoricon, these are also the property of Kumoricon.

Entrants give indefinite permission for Kumoricon to display all entries in contest galleries, and to use selected entries as ancillary art in program material for the 2008 and 2009 conventions, including those entries which do not win.

Entries must be original work, and solely the work of the entrant or entrants. Entrants must be authorized and able to assign ownership of the entry to Kumoricon, and to grant Kumoricon permission for the described uses, per the above rules describing such.

More than one person may contribute jointly to an entry, but all people must be identified in the submission.

Entries may not have been previously used for publicity purposes by any organization. (It is acceptable, however, if the entry was previously or is currently displayed in a gallery; for example, a portfolio of that artist's work.)

Entrants must not talk about or link to their entries, or discussion about their entries, or any entries in the contest, on the Kumoricon forums, private messages, mailing lists, or other Kumoricon communication systems, or bulk messages of any form to staff, until we have announced that a winner has been determined. (Non-entrants are also obliged to obey this rule, as a rule of the forums.) This is to help ensure fairness in the voting.

Content and theme: Entries must be appropriate for all ages. Content, design, and themes of the entries must be appropriate and suitable for their intended uses.

Entries displayed for voting in the contest must be anonymous, and not have identifying marks. All displayed entries will be credited to their entrants after the close of voting. Entrants, if they wish, may submit a second version containing a signature or marks which will be used for future display in contest galleries.

An entrant may enter more than once, but each design must be completely unique from others by the same entrant. (That is, if two different people had produced them, neither could be said to be copying from the other.)

An entrant may send an updated version of an entry prior to the due date for entries, replacing the prior entry.

Entries recevied very shortly after the due time of 11:59:59 PM may be accepted at our discretion, but if they are, we reserve the right to apply a score penalty to those entries in the voting formula based on how late they are. Because we usually receive some late entries, this is probably the most fair way to handle this situation in order to be fair both to those who entered on time, and those who may have experienced delays uploading large files.

The mascot contest:

Each entry must contain an adult or teen mascot, and chibi mascot, of the same character and style. Both must be received prior to the due date for entries.

Although typically the mascot is one person or character, it is allowed to be two characters or more, or to feature sidekicks. We recommend only doing this if the characters are shown interacting in an interesting or unique way (as opposed to just showing two characters side-by-side). In this case, all characters should be drawn in both adult and chibi form.

Entries should be as high a resolution as possible. Target at least 300dpi at typical sizes (the mascot filling most of a printed 8.5" by 11" page).

For best results, send your entry in a non-lossy-compressed format, such as PNG, PSD, or AI. If you use JPEG, use as high quality as possible, and we may request an original version if you win the contest.

Program book cover contest:

Entries must be at an aspect ratio of 8.5" width by 11" height (this is a portrait orientation). Entries must be at least 300dpi. Entries in a different aspect ratio will be cropped or stretched as needed. Entries in a severely wrong ratio may be disqualified, at our discretion.

Entries should be full color.

Entrants may enter the same or similar design for the convention book cover contest and the pocket programming guide contest, but if both win, then the Kumoricon board may decide, at its option, to use only one, and select the second-place winner for the other book, to increase the variety of art used.

Pocket programming guide cover contest:

Entries must be at an aspect ratio of about 8.5" width by 5.5" height (this is a landscape orentiation). [Note: These are the corrected dimensions. Please see my post later in the thread for a note about this change.] Entries must be at least 300dpi. Entries in a different aspect ratio will be cropped or stretched as needed. Entries in a severely wrong ratio may be disqualified, at our discretion.

Entries must not be color. Full grayscale is allowed.

The rule for entering the same or similar design for both cover contests applies (see above).

Contest administration details:

We will confirm to entrants that their entries have been received. We will send confirmations as we receive entries. Entrants are responsible for entering soon enough so that if there is a problem with the entry, it can be re-sent by the due date for entries. We reserve the right to accept late entries in individual cases if there is a problem due to our error, but entrants are ultimately responsible for ensuring that their entries are received in time.

Voting is open to staff who have officially registered (submitted signed form and paid dues) by the start of voting. Staff registering after this point may still vote if we enter their data before the close of voting.

Voting will be done online shortly after the close of voting. Voting will be performed using the Schulze method, which is a type of Condorcet method. In this method, voters rank their choices in order rather than selecting just one. There are many systems of ranked voting which compute the winner differently. The method used here, the Schulze method, has been selected because among all known ranked voting systems, it most encourages voters to rank their choices in their true order of preference, rather than using "strategic voting". For example, if voters were to only select one choice, then voters would be discouraged from picking their true favorite if they didn't perceive it to be popular, because it would be "wasting" a vote. However, with the Schulze method, it is in each voter's best interest to list their true entire preference order. Ultimately, this system makes it most likely that the true preference of the voters, as a group, is selected as the winner. Voters don't need to rank every candidate on their ballots, but it is in their best interest to do so. (Voting for just one does not increase the weight or "strength" of that vote.) You can learn more about Schulze voting here: http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/Schulze_method.

The mascot contest winner will be announced at the Closing Ceremonies of Kumoricon 2008.

The cover contest winners will each be announced between the close of voting and the time at which each of those publications becomes available.

Entries which do not meet the criteria in the rules may be disqualified, and entrants not participating in the contest according to the rules may have their entries disqualified. If this is discovered after a winner is announced, the award may be revoked.

Kumoricon reserves the right to pre-screen entries before voting begins. This helps the voting process if there are large numbers of entries.

If an insufficient number of entries is received, an unsuitable entry is chosen in the voting, or if, for any reason, the voting cannot be completed, for reasons including, but not limited to, technical problems with the voting, loss or corruption of ballot data, or insufficient number of votes received, then the Kumoricon board reserves the right to extend the due date for entries, change the start or end dates of voting, annul the voting, run a new election, or choose an entry as the winner, at its option. If, for any reason, the selected winner is not the winner determined by the voting, Kumoricon will release a statement identifying such fact.

Kumoricon reserves the right to add or modify rules, or make special allowances or changes to the contest, at its discretion, to resolve any unforeseen circumstances or problems which may arise, in the interest of ensuring fairness and seeing that the contest is completed according to the intent and spirit of the rules.

Mascot contest prize:

The winner of the mascot contest will receive a free Artist Alley table for Kumoricon 2009. Please note, that this is the year after the up-and-coming convention. It is the year for the convention for which your mascot will be used. It is for the year after because the winner is only announced at the 2008 convention. (This prize applies only to the mascot contest; not the cover contests.)

Galleries of past contest entries are online, for browsing and inspiration.

I have a question: Is it okay if the mascot is a kid? I know there needs to be a chibi version as well as a regular one, and kids are already kind of chibi, but if you make it obvious which one is the kid and which is the chibi, would it be okay?

I have a question: Is it okay if the mascot is a kid? I know there needs to be a chibi version as well as a regular one, and kids are already kind of chibi, but if you make it obvious which one is the kid and which is the chibi, would it be okay?

Yes, this is ok.

The distinction between adult/kid and adult/chibi is not the same; they are sort of on orthogonal scales. You can definitely have a non-chibi kid and chibi kid, which is the distinction we're looking for.

I know a full body shot of both images for the mascot contest are probably prefered, but what's legal in a contest as far as the minimum amount of picture allowed? .... um .... I mean, do you take waist shots? Knees and higher? Sitting or crouched poses?

I know a full body shot of both images for the mascot contest are probably prefered, but what's legal in a contest as far as the minimum amount of picture allowed? .... um .... I mean, do you take waist shots? Knees and higher? Sitting or crouched poses?

We would like a "complete" picture of the mascot, but that doesn't absolutely mean that some part can't be covered. The reason is that the mascot is often used stand-alone on printed material and it looks best if it's a complete character. Using only a partial view may limit the optimal places where we can position the image.

In some cases we ourselves may crop it; for example, the adult mascot in the web site header art. Sometimes due to space limitations that's the best we can do (without shrinking it a huge amount). I experimented with different positions there and it just looked weird if it overlapped the trees, it would be too small if the entire image was used, and using just the head (and chest , and tail) meant we could use the chibi on the other side, too. (Also for a week or two when the 2008 site was launched, the adult mascot was behind the text buttons. But this didn't look very good so it had to go.)

We won't disqualify an entry just because the view is not a full view--possibly something like head-only would need to be changed, though--but the staff might not consider it as good when voting. The pose doesn't matter--this is an area where you can really use your creativity.

Text is preferred so voters can see where it is, what it looks like and how it will fit in with the art, but entrants should keep an original copy without text just in case it needs to be changed.

I forgot to note in the rules, but "Kumoricon" is officially spelled as one word, no spaces or hyphens, and only the "K" capitalized (not the "c"). However, since this wasn't originally noted, we'll accept any standard alternates in spacing, punctuation, or capitalization on the cover and use it if it wins.

I just noticed I made an error in the pocket book cover specs! The correct dimensions are:

8.5" width5.5" heightLandscape orientation.

Before, it said 11" height, which is the same as the main program book (incorrect).

I've contacted the entrants about this, and we'll do our best to use any versions we receive which are in a different dimension and let the entrant modify it, or find a way to use it as-is and be sure it works well.

If you've already started but not yet submitted a pocket guide entry based on the incorrect dimensions and would like to use what you have so far instead of changing it, please contact me at publicity@kumoricon.org and we'll do our best to accommodate this. We have a number of options, and don't want to unfairly hurt anybody who was drawing based on the old dimensions.

Sorry, I can't do that. I don't like to extend the contests this close to the deadline because it's not fair to all the entrants. Only if there was a special circumstance where it was needed, like we got a very small number of entries. Also, the date was chosen with regard to the printing deadline, including some leeway, and making things a week later would make things too close for comfort.

We can list late entries in the gallery which goes up after the voting, noting that they weren't included in the voting.

The description of how and when the voting works in the first post is still accurate. Voting should open by Saturday. I was hoping to try to get it open in the middle of this week, but I've been delayed a bit so Saturday should be the day. It will probably last until the Sunday the weekend after.

Voting is for staff only, and an email announcement was sent to the staff mailing list early this morning announcing the opening of voting. Voting can be accessed by logging in to the staff area of the web site, and the links are on the staff area main page.

Wow! Radien and I agree that some of the mascots for '09 are amazing!! I had so much trouble picking my favorites but I do want to find out who the artists were on the top two i chose because I am looking for comission of myself anime style!

I do feel again this year that we are pretty lacking on the cover art for the program and pocket guide. There was one real gem in the program art but I do wish we had more selection on them overall <3

The number of entries was a bit lower this year. Possibly because I didn't announce it on the front page right at the start of the contest this year. Which would be a good idea to do again for future years.

We will de-anonymize the galleries sometime after the voting is over, but before the con, so the public and not just staff can see all the entries, to build up the suspense before the mascot announcement at Closing Ceremonies.

That reminds me...the staff voting was set to end 2 hours ago, but late Sunday, I extended it 24 hours so that all the new staff who registered at the Saturday meeting would have a full 24 hours to vote. I had earlier tonight sent an email to the staff mailing list about this.

Yes, voting is over. Due to a backlog of high-priority work as the con gets very near and the book printing deadlines even closer, I won't have the galleries up until at least this weekend, and we haven't used the voting software to tabulate the ballots yet. But voting is finished. You can post them elsewhere (though actually, if you don't mention them here, you could have already posted them elsewhere), but please don't discuss them on the forum here until the galleries go up. After that you can speculate and ramp up the suspense all you want.

Yes, voting is over. Due to a backlog of high-priority work as the con gets very near and the book printing deadlines even closer, I won't have the galleries up until at least this weekend, and we haven't used the voting software to tabulate the ballots yet. But voting is finished. You can post them elsewhere (though actually, if you don't mention them here, you could have already posted them elsewhere), but please don't discuss them on the forum here until the galleries go up. After that you can speculate and ramp up the suspense all you want.

Yay! It is nearly upon us... I can't wait to see all the cool drawings... and revel in ocular joygasms of sight.

So many awesome entries, I'm glad I didn't enter this year or I would have been blown out of the water by everyone else. Big kudos to the person who did the girl with rainbow tipped hair though. I'm rooting for you.

Yikes... Firefox makes high resolution JPEGs look yukky when it zooms out... make sure you zoom-in on each of the pictures so you can see their true line qualities. Damn its nice to see a group of entries where the work is good-enough that people are going to be judged on their artistic and technical choices instead of being a "big-fish-in-a-small-pond."